Man, where has Amemiya been hiding writer Umeda Sumiko all this time? The conversations between Rei and Alice are amazing. Maybe some of the best writing for dialogue between two people that I've seen in toku?

Alice is once again perpetually amusing to watch and listen to, which amazes me since I think a weaker script or acting direction would probably annoy me with Alice's actress still be new to this whole acting thing. But they make it work and it excels. And while totally obvious in retrospect, I was completely thrown off by the Rei/Alice thing to guess that Alice would totally steal the egg. Of course she would and does.

Cute dragon!

Also, Amemiya is killing it with the monster designs this time around. I love the snakey woman bit, it reminds me of Junji Ito for some reason.

Even with the plot point climax in the last episode, this is still a really good episode that excels in different ways. We deal with the aftermath of a main character's death and the repercussions of everything that has come to this point. We don't often get that in toku, usually just moving on to the next big bad with little thought to character or story. Keep this level of writing up to episode 13 and I'll be very happy.

5/5 for me.

Edit: Also, the monster is the lovely Momose Misaki. You might remember her from Makai Retsuden episode 6, she played Erika the assassin who was after Bikuu. Plus she's Shiishii from Space Sheriffs new generations, so look forward to her in Space Squad. Oh yeah, Momose Misaki has a real sweet sword in this.http://wiki.tvnihon.com/wiki/Momose_Misaki

I love the interactions between Rei and Alice this episode, but girl, WTH...

A departing Wrassler neighbor loved Kamen Rider Dragon Knight. While the show's stuntwork was impressive, I told him there are better KR series, with implications to broaden his horizons beyond Toei Tokusatsu.

One aspect where Garo has disappointed me in recent series is the monster design. A lot of them are either forgettable or a naked woman fused with an object. I was kinda iffy about the stretchy torso thing at first, but man was that design cool once it unleashed its full Horror form. It was a pretty short battle once Rei pulled out the armor, but instant classic for me.

I knew the Horror’s actress looked familiar. I figured she was a Garo alum, but I didn’t realize she was in the metal hero reboot too. Cool.

I suppose having Master tell Alice everything about Rei’s backstory offscreen was one way of saving the audience from sitting through things we already know, but it was pretty rude of him to spill all of the secrets about Rei’s past to someone who’s still mostly a stranger.

I’m curious if Alice took the egg because she was able to see through the lie Rei told her about the egg being returned to the Makai safely, or if she intended to take the egg back to the forest that she’s dreamed of returning to.

I love this episode with Rei & Alice's interactions during her "last day" with Rei and that Snakewoman design looked nice and then there's the baby dragon, it's so cute I want it as a pet, until the reason for having to kill it is revealed anyway. 5/5

Really liked this episode, it was a nice way to calm down and reset after last week's intensity. Rei and Alice's talks really were sweet without getting too mushy.

That grave at the beginning threw me off, thinking, "Oh shit, Ryuga's in this???", seeing as that was the exact same style of grave that he built for his mother. (Is that a Japanese thing, or are we meant to think it's a traditional Makai thing?)

I kinda wish they'd came up with a different way for Rei to train instead of doing the fang/axe things again, but that's just a minor quibble.

Yeah, I think it's a dreamcatcher, just like the one on Zero's back. Also, note Rekka has her flute upon which she plays Requiem for Heroic Spirits. Two nice call backs! (I think I wrote about it in the trivia section of the wiki but not here. So check both!)

Aberration wrote:
That grave at the beginning threw me off, thinking, "Oh shit, Ryuga's in this???", seeing as that was the exact same style of grave that he built for his mother. (Is that a Japanese thing, or are we meant to think it's a traditional Makai thing?)

I'd forgotten those previous scenes with Rei. (I was skimming through Yami recently, that's why the imagery from that series is easier for me to recall at the moment.) If that was meant to be a subtle link between past and future, that's pretty cool.

I wonder if there are any other graves that would prove or deny whether all Makai Knights makes graves like this or not. At the very least, it makes sense for the cross to be there. But not the dream catcher, since that's Rei specific.

So this time it is worm from alice in wonderland and dragon is probably Jabberwock also the egg is a reference to humpty dumpty which fell from walla dn shattered. I can't remember other motw's but i think they were really clear about this being a alice in wonderland theme thoroughly.